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ITCM 29 - GhostyKun
I was looking forward to talking with GhostyKun. I had seen his art in the Off-Topic forum and his brash talk on behalf of Last Stand made him stand out. It surprised me a little to find out that he was still in high school when I finally met him. I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it, but most people who posted on the forums seemed to be in their twenties and thirties. The light drizzle didn’t seem to bother him, but I guess people who lived in Seattle, WA as he does have to get used to it. I suppose it’s better than a constant high temperature. Well, marginally better anyway. I decided to meet him out at EMP, the Experience Music Project, which also houses the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and the Science Fiction Museum in addition to the Experience Music Project. I can’t help it, I just have to marvel at Farrah Fawcett’s costume from Logan’s Run every time. It’s just the teensy, tiniest little scrap of thing. But of course, I made sure we sat in the little cafeteria to chat before I went to revisit my favorite things about the world of SciFi/Fantasy movies. There was no guarantee I’d finish the interview otherwise! “I started gaming with Nintendo handheld consoles such as the Gameboy Advance. I used to always carry one around with me. Games like Pokémon and Fire Emblem really defined my childhood,” he grinned cheekily at me, since he knew I knew nothing about those games other than the names. “I've stuck with Nintendo consoles and added mobile gaming to my hobbies, although I find it difficult to focus on more than one at a time. I actually played Defender of Texel before BB2. When it began to sink, however, I jumped boat onto Blood Brothers 2, curious to see how it would end up. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a tactical rpg, just like Fire Emblem. I felt at home with the genre.” He paused and laughed ruefully before continuing the refrain that I hear from everyone who plays BB2, “However, I'm sure we can all agree DeNA's choices and the crazy pacts can get aggravating at times.” Shrugging philosophically, he went on to talk about himself, “So there’s a backstory to my ign and forum name, GhostyKun. I love ghosts, as well as anime. It transformed from "Spectral" and other ghastly names of the sort, and eventually I added on the "Kun" suffix. I guess this name may seem really nerdy to others, but I think it sounds happy and easy going, kinda like me! I'm in the guild Underworld Kingdom, although now I guess we go by the name Last Stand. I joined because I thought it connected well with my own ign, I mean, ghosts live in the underworld, right?“ He laughed delightedly at his own pun. His delight was contagious and I laughed with him. I asked him about the Kun suffix. “It’s basically just a suffix for younger people in Japanese, usually more masculine. That or a friend or workmate.” Moving on to the forum, he said, “I love the forum. It feels like a very solid community that loves the game, even if they do complain. I think it's really fun, and I'm really happy that people enjoy my art, even if I haven't updated my thread for a while.” I asked him if he’d done any art lately and he showed me a drawing. He chuckled at the blank look on my face and enlightened me, “The drawing is of Mr. L, a character from Mario.” I shook my head in amused resignation. I did a search on Google to see what it looked like, and was impressed with the likeness. He really did have a lot of talent. “Is that what you’re going to study in college?” I asked curiously. He shook his head. “No, I was actually thinking of studying in some field of biology. Probably like neurology or medicine.” I laughed. That was about as far off from art as you could get. “What made you decide on something like that?” He perked up at that, “I took a biology course and we dissected a pig fetus! And I dissected a dissected a cow eye, outside of that course. I had a blast! I found that biology really interests me.” Well, wasn’t that just typical? I grinned at his fascination with the gory aspects of biology. “So tell me about your trip to China. Was it a school trip or a family trip?” “We have family there, and we’d never been, so we went on a family trip. Did a lot of the tourist things, like the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City.” Well, I sat up at that. I grew up on Chinese history and stories of Qin Shihuang, the First Emperor of China, who built the Great Wall and unified China. It’s said that the foundation of the Great Wall was littered with the skeletons of those workers who were buried where they fell. And of course, the Manchu Dynasty and the Forbidden City, where the Emperor had his concubines, the ones with the bound feet. But when I asked him about the history of the places he’d visited, he just shrugged. “Well I knew about landmarks and such, but not any specific details.” I had to laugh. I guess not everyone has the same interest in history that I do. “So the Forbidden City was just a bunch of pretty buildings?” I teased him. He grinned, “I guess so. I've never really been one for history. Well, I definitely can appreciate the architecture. But I found that there's not all that much to do there.” I shook my head in amusement. And there was the difference between us. I’d have been wandering around the place dreamily, imagining the Emperor picking out his concubine for the night. Of course, if that happened today, the guy would get a hearty slap, but hey, this was in the past. With some difficulty, I brought my thoughts back to BB2 and the forums. “While I'm not super active in conversations, I do read most of the stuff going on. I don't really mind the debates, either, since they can make for interesting reads. Our guild is, in my opinion, a nice blend of p2p and f2p. We're not so competitive that we argue or push people too hard, but we can still compete at a pretty high level. I am, however, f2p. While I don't have the best team, I'm not too bad at the game.” “I prefer daily leader boards as I don't have to compete every single day. The weekly events feels a bit too long, and my interest sometimes dies out. Nonetheless, I generally try to rank around the 250-1000 range. I do so by clearing the hardest hell level or the easiest insane level, depending on the event. While I do spend a lot of time repeating stages, I do try to conserve a bit of interest by taking breaks. I haven't done too much on gauntlet events yet, although now that I've built my teams up more I'm excited for the next one!” I smiled, everyone seemed to complain about grinding in the events. Then a thought struck me, and curious now, I asked what race he would be if he were a BB2 character and what kinds of skills he would have. Thoughtfully, he replied, “If I was a bb2 race I'd probably be an Easterner. Skills? Hmm...probably support type skills like healing or buffing? I guess my skill would be called something along the lines of "Purification Ritual" and would have a heal multiplier of 50% and a Wisdom and Defence buff of 75%.” That was interesting to me. Most people I talk to wanted to have Quick Strike skills with massive damage. They might hate Quick Strike in game but everyone wanted it for themselves! But that was it from me, so after I thanked him for the interview, I went into the SciFi/Fantasy museum and browsed my afternoon away. Category:ITCM Category:Mizy